The Omagh Bombing Inquiry has been sitting over the last few weeks. It has been harrowing to listen or read what have been described as “commemorative hearings” which have reminded us how the twenty-nine people who perished and the many injured were individuals simply enjoying a summer day when the Real IRA bomb exploded on 15th August 1998. My father owned a business in Omagh at that time. I accompanied him to a couple of the funerals and will never forget the raw grief. The Inquest is a timely reminder of the many unresolved murders which occurred during the Troubles.

Christians find themselves emotionally and morally torn by the memories of these atrocities. We feel anger at the loss of life, the lack of justice, and the elusiveness of truth. However, we also feel the need to offer hope, so that future generations do not suffer in a similar manner. One way of holding together this tension is the biblical practice of lament. About a third of the Psalter, the hymn book of the Scriptures, are Psalms of lament. Some are written for individuals, while others are communal. The scriptures allow us to be angry at God, expressing our frustration at the lack of justice, the hurt, and the grief. God is able to handle strong raw emotions expressed in vivid, imaginative, sweary language. Jesus himself quoted Psalm 22, when he cried out on the Cross…. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” Jeremiah laments his very existence 15v10… alas my mother, that you gave me birth.”

The late David Stevens*, wrote perceptively…

“We may need to lament and grieve for what has been lost and done and acknowledge anger, injustice, bitterness, pain, resentment, disorientation, loss of identity, and uncertainty. For this we need language; feelings need to be released into words.”

The resources available in the Biblical language of lament which found expression in the corporate grieving connected with the destruction of Jerusalem and exile in Babylon and the ritual actions of the faith community could be of help in this.” Johnston McMaster** also puts it well…

“The anger and rage may be against people, or it may be against God. Popular religion and piety have conditioned many to believe that anger and rage against God is wrong or is a lack of faith. In Israel’s experience and understanding not to express anger and rage towards God was the real lack of faith. The Jewish tradition has always had and still has this liberating ability to argue with God, make accusation and complaint.”

In our prayer lives we tend to spend too much time telling God what we think he likes to hear, rather than pouring our heart out to him. Religious polite pious words can distance us from God.

Eugene Peterson uses the illustration of imagining going out for meal with a friend or spouse. As you eat and drink you converse honestly, sharing positive and negative emotions, as well as happy and sad stories. You laugh and maybe shed a tear together. While this intimate conversation is going on, you are interrupted by the waiter occasionally to order food, ask for another drink, or to remind him to compliment the chef. The conversation is friendly without being intimate. Peterson then challenges with the question… do we converse with God as a waiter or as a friend? Do we treat God like a waiter just asking for things, commending Him for the quality of food he provides, or do we share our feelings, our inner struggles our negative emotions?

Our worship has been inhibited by a lack of laments among our hymnody. Contemporary worship is too easily dismissed as happy clappy, when the truth is that traditional worship also had a bias toward the happy, though some avoid “the clappy”! Laments, by nature, are difficult to write, as well as sing. I am involved in a project with the Presbyterian Church to address this lack. Karen Campbell, who works for the Irish Council of Churches, has been leading a series of Bible Studies in different geographical locations on Psalms of lament. These have involved Ministers with experience of the Troubles, younger people with no direct experience of the Troubles, as well as some victims of the Troubles. Karen is now using her musical, writing and theological gifts to produce a suite of laments to redress this imbalance. We look forward to them being made available.

*David Stevens was a former General Secretary of the Irish Council of Churches (ICC).
**Johnston McMaster is an Author, Lecturer and Educator on Shared Remembering and Reconciliation.

Tony Davidson is a retired Presbyterian Minister.

Please note that the statements and views expressed in this article of those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Contemporary Christianity.